Tomato 3/4 |
Adventureland (2009) |
"It all inspires a sense of affection that makes it easy to love." |
Cammila Albertson |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Able Danger (2008) |
"Paul Krik's stylish, darkly comic conspiracy thriller takes its title from a classified military program alleged to have identified four 9/11 hijackers prior to the terrorist attacks, and borrows its gleaming B&W look from The Maltese Falcon." |
Ken Fox |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Alexandra (2008) |
"Russian director Alexander Sokurov brings a political edge to the intra-family dynamics with this relatively straightforward tale of a grandmother's trip to an embattled region of Russia for a visit with her grandson." |
Ken Fox |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
The Amazing Truth about Queen Raquela (2008) |
"Rios is the glue that holds Johannesson's neither-fish-nor-fowl film together:" |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato 3/4 |
America The Beautiful (2008) |
"A sprawling, messy, frustrating and impassioned examination of the psychological fallout from America's obsession with a highly artificial and all-but unattainable standard of beauty." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
American Teen (2008) |
"There's no denying that Burstein has captured something very real, honest truths about growing up that no one who's been to high-school can deny." |
Ken Fox |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Anamorph (2008) |
"The unfortunate fact is that it's more than a little dull when it isn't preposterous." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat 1/4 |
Another Gay Sequel (2008) |
"A queer spin on Not Another Teen Movie that's even less entertaining -- and far grosser -- that the original." |
Ken Fox |
Splat 1/4 |
Appaloosa (2008) |
"It's both dull and preposterous, which neither Dean Semler's somberly handsome score nor Jeff Beals' pushy, cornball score does anything to ameliorate." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato 3/4 |
August (2008) |
"This stylish, well acted drama chronicles one once-successful dot-com's efforts to stay afloat in the wake of the Internet boom's bust." |
Ken Fox |
Tomato 3/4 |
The Abandoned (2007) |
"By the film's downbeat climax, Cerda's dread of death and uncertainty about digging too deeply into what's better left buried have become palpable, and The Abandoned lingers beneath the skin as any decent horror movie should." |
Ken Fox |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story (2007) |
"At heart, it remains a wrenching human-interest story about a group of family members who refuse to allow their loved ones to become casualties of international diplomacy by simply disappearing." |
Ken Fox |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Across the Universe (2007) |
"[Director Taymor's] reach exceeds her grasp for a good half of its two-hour plus running time. But the other half is breathtaking, simultaneously visually inventive and vividly attuned to the broad streak of melancholy that runs through the 1960s." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato 3/4 |
Adam's Apples (2007) |
"Peculiar but oddly winsome fable about the spiritual journeys of two diametrically opposed characters." |
Ken Fox |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
After The Wedding (2007) |
"A thoughtful exploration of paternity and responsibility. Much of the film's success lies in Bier's sensitive direction, but credit is also due to the fine cast, particularly Mikkelsen." |
Ken Fox |
Tomato 3/4 |
Air Guitar Nation (2007) |
"Fascinating? Absolutely." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat 2.5/4 |
The Air I Breathe (2007) |
"Aside from demonstrating how liberation and change can occur even at the most dire turn of events, it's not exactly clear exactly what his overly ambitious drama is trying to say." |
Ken Fox |
Tomato 3/4 |
Alice Neel (2007) |
"[It's] more than a mere biography of an important 20th-century artist: It's also an intimate portrait of a family member that questions whether or not 'great artist' and 'good parent' can ever be combined in the same person." |
Ken Fox |
Tomato 3/4 |
Alice's House (2007) |
"The gritty location shooting, the absence of a soundtrack and the casting of non-professionals in key roles help capture an all-important sense of place with almost documentary precision." |
Ken Fox |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem (2007) |
"Delivers what it promises and not much more." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Alone With Her (2007) |
"Through Hanks' and Talancon's subtle, naturalistic performance [writer-director Eric Nicholas] cultivates a human dimension often missing from thrillers." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato 3/4 |
Alpha Dog (2007) |
"In most areas, Cassavetes's instincts are spot-on, particularly when it comes to casting Timberlake in what turns out to be the most important role in the film. He manages to be both reprehensible and deeply charismatic, and winds up stealing the picture." |
Ken Fox |
Splat |
Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007) |
"They’re baaaaack." |
Ken Fox |
Tomato 3/4 |
Amazing Grace (2007) |
"[The screenwriter] does an admirable job of streamlining a story that unfolds over the course of 20 years. Meanwhile, Apted allows his fine cast the breathing room to make historical figures feel like living, breathing people rather than waxworks." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato 3/4 |
American Gangster (2007) |
"Its vivid sense of place and time make it compulsively watchable, even at a running time of two and a half hours." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat 1.5/4 |
And Then Came Love (2007) |
"The film falters on many fronts, including truly wooden performances and a thoroughly uninteresting heroine." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Angel-A (2007) |
"Besson's sniggering conception of Angela as a pure spirit in the body of a high-end hooker is just juvenile, and Andre is, frankly, a drag." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato 3/4 |
Angels in the Dust (2007) |
"Writer-director Louise Hogarth's straightforward film documents the life's work of white South African activist Marion Cloete: Her efforts to feed, educate and love hundreds of abandoned and orphaned children." |
Ken Fox |
Splat 2/4 |
Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theatres (2007) |
"Only die-hard addicts of the Cartoon Network series will want to sit through the entire film for its amusing moments." |
Angel Cohn |
Tomato 3/4 |
Arctic Tale (2007) |
"...directors/cinematographers Sarah Robertson and Adam Ravetch capture the struggle of life in this frozen wilderness with effective poignancy." |
Ken Fox |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Are We Done Yet? (2007) |
"The film desperately needs a stronger script; one with a few funny jokes would be nice. Instead what we get is an incessant score that punctuates every pratfall and clues the audience in to what's meant to be funny." |
Ken Fox |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Arranged (2007) |
"Schaefer and Crespo's message isn’t subtle, but they give it a fresh face by focusing on women whose identities are shaped but not warped by piety and devotion to ancient cultural values." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat 2/4 |
Arthur and the Invisibles (2007) |
"Succumbing to the in-joke trend popular in children's films, Luc Besson's visually attractive movie spoils its own fantasy spell with anachronistic references and a quickly resolved story line." |
Angel Cohn |
Splat 1.5/4 |
The Astronaut Farmer (2007) |
"Charlie's dream is so outlandish that it could only be fulfilled in a ridiculous Hollywood movie. The price paid by Charlie's wife and children, however, feels too real for his fantasy to be inspiring." |
Ken Fox |
Tomato 3/4 |
Atonement (2007) |
"For the most part, the result is a smashing success, filled with great performances and exquisite production design." |
Ken Fox |
Splat 1.5/4 |
August Rush (2007) |
"[An] odd, quasi-mystical movie that’s too silly for adults to take seriously and frankly too weird for kids." |
Ken Fox |
Tomato 3/4 |
Avenue Montaigne (2007) |
"De France finds the hint of sadness beneath the ready smile and knows how to play genuine, self-effacing goodness." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat 1.5/4 |
Awake (2007) |
"What a waste. Check out [Hitchcock's] Breakdown or Aldo Lado's 1971 Italian giallo Long Night of the Short Dolls for a far better treatments of the same subject." |
Ken Fox |
Tomato 3.5/4 |
Away From Her (2007) |
"Polley reveals herself to be a true talent. She's an intelligent, sensitive filmmaker who clearly belongs on both sides of the camera." |
Ken Fox |
Tomato 3/4 |
A Scanner Darkly (2006) |
"Richard Linklater wraps novelist Philip K. Dick's paranoid, prescient nightmare of addiction and identity lost down the rabbit hole in the same rotoscoped animation that helped produce the blissed-out groove of his Waking Life." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Abominable (2006) |
"Schifrin's modest thriller delivers some gross-out gore in the last third, but spends most of its running time building up a tidy atmosphere of mounting dread." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat 2.5/4 |
Absolute Wilson (2006) |
"A rather conventional, Biography Channel-style portrait of a man who helped change the face of theater in the last quarter of the 20th century." |
Ken Fox |
Splat 2/4 |
Accepted (2006) |
"A shameless Animal House (1978) knockoff by way of Ferris Bueller's Day Off(1986), this college comedy aims low and misses often." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
Adam & Steve (2006) |
"It hits more often than it misses, and the best parts are always the simplest, in which the stars wing it with nothing to go on but their natural chemistry." |
Ken Fox |
Splat 2/4 |
Agnes and His Brothers (2006) |
"[The film] isn't especially engaging, despite a quietly charismatic performance by Weiss, a relative newcomer who holds his own against far more experienced actors." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato 3/4 |
Akeelah and the Bee (2006) |
"Sentimental, manipulative, predictable and utterly charming, writer-director Doug Atchison's underdog tale revolves around an indifferent student who blossoms after heeding the siren call of competitive spelling." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat 2/4 |
Al Franken: God Spoke (2006) |
"There's a story to be told in Al Franken's transformation from smarty-pants Saturday Night Live personality to political commentator on the scrappy liberal radio station Air America, but Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus ... fail to find it." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato 3/4 |
Al Otro Lado (2006) |
"The film's heart is Magdiel and the modest dreams that get him through the day but may also be the death of him." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Splat 2/4 |
Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker (2006) |
"If there's a pressing need for a teen version of James Bond-style spy tales, it's not apparent: Twelve-year-olds are already watching the real thing." |
Maitland McDonagh |
Tomato 2.5/4 |
All The King's Men (2006) |
"Some will undoubtedly find Penn's ham-boned, spittle-lashing performance a bit much, but it's a pretty close to Warren's original conception." |
Ken Fox |
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